Prior art machines for the continuous application of multipackaging strips to containers have generally been of the types shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,383,828, 3,032,843, and 3,032,944. Those machines use pin or jaw elements which engage and individually stretch each of the bands of a multipackaging strip for application to a plurality of containers. Those prior art machines and their teachings have been limited to stretching and applying a strip of two rows of container encircling bands to two adjacent rows of containers, by mechanisms that positively engage and stretch the individual bands in the strip.
Something less than positive engagement and individual band stretching is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,677. In that patent a mechanism is shown that cuts a carrier strip into individual carrier devices and then grips each carrier device along its side marginal edges outside of the apertures of the carrier, stretches the carrier to effectively make it taut, and thereafter applies or projects it downwardly over the upper end of a group of six containers.